Children went to Yasmin Khala’s house to know about the person who is responsible for the maintenance of the street lights and to whom they should pay. Rehana’s mom told them that Municipal corporation take cares of the replacing lights. So, they went to Yasmin Khala’s house as she recently retired from the Municipal Corporation and could tell them about it.

2. List four ways in which the work of the Municipal Corporation affects the life of a city-dweller.

Answer

Four ways in which the work of the Municipal Corporation affects the life of a city-dweller:
(i) Construction and maintenance of roads, parks, street lights etc.
(ii) Cleansing and maintenance of drainage system.
(iii) Collection and disposal of garbage.
(iv) Supply of safe drinking water.
(v) Electricity supply.

3. Who is a Municipal Councillor?

Answer

A Municipal Councillor is an elected member of the committee of Municipal Corporation.
• The ward or Municipal Councillor listened to the problem of their local people and help them to get in touch with the concerned authority.
• They also make budget of their ward and put it in front of the whole council.

4. What did Gangabai do and why?

Answer

Gangabai went to the Ward Councillor house after gathering small group of women shouting slogans and described the situation in the locality to him.
She did so because there were uncollected garbage lying all over in the locality which attracts dogs,
rats and flies and people are getting ill from this.

5. How does the Municipal Corporation earn the money to do its work?

Answer

Municipal Corporation earns money from the taxes collected from various sources like the property taxes, water taxes, entertainment taxes and also from taxes on education and other amenities.

Page No. 64

6. Discuss
In the two photographs you see different ways of collecting and disposing garbage.
i) Which way do you think provides safety to the person disposing garbage?
ii) What are the dangers of collecting garbage in the manner shown in the first photograph?
iii) Why do you think that proper ways of disposing garbage are not available to those who work in municipalities?

Answer

(i) I think Photo 2 provides safety to the person disposing garbage.
(ii) In the first photograph, people collecting garbage might get injured or infected and may fall ill. It will affect their health as they are not taking any safety measures. The garbage will also not collected properly.
(iii) The proper ways of disposing garbage are not available to those who work in municipalities may be due to the lack of fund availability or the careless behaviour of the officials and workers.

7. Several poor people in the city work as domestic servants as well as work for the Corporation, keeping the city clean. Yet the slums in which they live are quite filthy. This is because these slums seldom have any water and sanitation facilities. The reason often given by the Municipal Corporation is that the land in which the poor have set up their homes does not belong to them and that slum-dwellers do not pay taxes. However people living in middle class neighbourhoods pay very little in taxes compared to the amount of money the corporation spends on them in setting up parks, street lighting facilities, regular garbage collection etc. Also as you read in this chapter, the property taxes collected by the Municipality makes up only 25-30 per cent of its money. Why do you think it is important that the Corporation should spend more money on slum localities? Why is it important that the Municipal Corporation provide the poor in the city with the same facilities that the rich get?

Answer

It is important that the Corporation should spend more money on slum localities because:
(i) If they do not provide them equal facilities then it is discrimination on the basis of economic condition.
(ii) Slums are also a part of the society. The people living there contribute a lot for the society and also the major work population like domestic servants Municipal workers, cleaners etc.
(iii) Diseases can also spread to the neighbouring locality of the slums due to dirty condition.